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CUP: Red Bull Switches Kahne Car Number
Kasey Kahne's 2011 Red Bull Racing Toyota will sport the No. 4...
Kenny Bruce  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted December 15, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kasey Kahne is driving the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season for Red Bull Racing before heading to Hendrick Motorsports. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kasey Kahne's Red Bull Racing team will compete with the No. 4 in 2011, a nod to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver’s number in Sprint cars, according to a team official.

Kahne competed in the final five races of the 2010 season with Red Bull after leaving Richard Petty Motorsports. In those races, he filled in for the team in the organization’s No. 83 Toyota while driver Brian Vickers continued his recovery from blood clots.

Red Bull signed the 30-year-old Kahne was to a one-year deal for 2011, after which he will move to Hendrick Motorsports. With Vickers return, Kahne will move to the organization’s second team, which was previously driven by Scott Speed and carried the No. 82.

Teams do not own the car numbers with which they race, but are awarded specific numbers, typically upon request, by NASCAR.

“We worked with NASCAR and, out of respect for Morgan-McClure [Motorsports], we also talked to them, so they are aware,” Red Bull Racing General Manager Jay Frye said, who added that Kahne requested the number for his car.

“It’s for one year only, and NASCAR could give the number back to Morgan-McClure in 2012. Hopefully by then, [they] will have a full-time program back in place.”

Morgan-McClure Motorsports fielded cars with the number from 1983 through 2009.

Frye said because Kahne will only be with the team for one year, it would be easy to make a “clean break” the following year and resume use of either the 82 or 84 numbers the team has previously used.

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